No. 15 ISU Takes UND Classic with 3-1 Win Over TAMU

GRAND FORKS, N.D. – The No. 15 Iowa State volleyball team came out on top of a dramatic four-set match against Texas A&M 3-1 (21-25, 25-22, 25-23, 27-25) Saturday morning at the Betty Engelstad Sioux Center. The win improved ISU to 3-0 on the season, and took the Aggies to 1-1. Iowa State was the champions of the UND Classic with its three wins.

Turning Point of the MatchThe Cyclones dropped the first set 25-21, and were down for early portion of the second set. Tied 15-15 in the second, the Cyclones pulled off a 4-0 run powered by two Natalie Vondrak kills to get ahead for good, take the set 25-22 and tie the match at one set each.

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Cyclone Match Ball Goes to …Tenisha Matlock. The senior was unstoppable for portions of the match. Matlock tied a career high with 20 kills, and had one of her most efficient matches as a Cyclone, posting a .526 percentage. Matlock also chipped in a solo block and two block assists.

An honorable mention to Mackenzie Bigbee, who had 18 kills at a .394 hitting percentage and recorded a few big kills in the fourth set to get Iowa State home with the win. A mention also for Natalie Vondrak, who had the best match of her young career with eight kills off the bench. Her two kills in the afore mentioned 4-0 second set run propelled Iowa State back into the match.

Cyclone Nation, who was your player of the match? Tweet the player along with the hashtag #CyclONEmatchball to @CycloneVB and we’ll announce the fan’s pick later before tomorrow’s match.

Quoting Christy Johnson-Lynch“This was an exceptional start to the season. I thought going into this that if we were 3-0 that would show we were a very good team. We showed some grit and had lots of great performances from many different people. We are beginning to see our team identity and I am excited with what I am seeing so far.”

Cyclone Notes*For the fifth time under head coach Christy Johnson-Lynch, Iowa State won its first three matches of the year.*Iowa State has won six of its last seven matches against Texas A&M.*Tenisha Matlock tied a career-high with 20 kills. She also posted 20 kills in ISU’s win over Iowa in 2012. Her .528 hitting percentage was the third-best of her career. It was also the first time a Cyclone had 20 kills in a match since Victoria Hurtt had 22 at Texas last year.*Kristen Hahn had 23 digs to extend her streak of at least 10+ digs in a match to 43 matches, only one behind Ashley Mass’ school record of 44 matches. She had 20+ digs for the sixth time in the last seven matches dating back to last season.*Mackenzie Bigbee was in double-figures for kills for the third time this season with her 18 kills. She now has 19 career matches with at least 10 kills.*Victoria Hurtt had 11 kills, her second double-figure kill match of the season and 29th of her career.*Morgan Kuhrt’s 13 digs were a career-high.*Caitlin Nolan’s 10 digs marked the first time this year and 14th of her career she entered the double-figures threshold.

After each match, one tweet will be chose as the “Fan Tweet of the Match”. Fans are encouraged to tweet @CycloneVB during the match and should check cyclones.com to see if their tweet was chose as “Fan Tweet of the Match”.

On DeckIowa State is on the road in Cedar Falls against UNI on Wednesday. First serve against the Panthers is slated for 7 p.m.